Lord Astor of Hever: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Drayson on 24 April (WA 1), what percentage of financial costs will be met by the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to cover the planned deployment of FYROM's troops to support the headquarters group of the United Kingdom-led allied rapid reaction corps during the latter's nine-month command of the NATO-led international security assistance force operation.

Lord Drayson: I refer the noble Lord to my reply to his previous Question on 24 April 2006 (Official Report, col. WA 1). The United Kingdom is currently engaged in concluding a memorandum of understanding with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) which will set out the detail of the financial arrangements covering the planned deployment of FYROM's troops to Afghanistan. I cannot provide these details, but expect FYROM to cover the majority of financial costs that result from the deployment of its forces.

Lord Warner: In 1995 the Government considered the evidence on the effects of alcohol in pregnancy, including the risk of miscarriage for their report Sensible Drinking Message: Report of an inter-departmental working group.
	The risks of excessive drinking during pregnancy are well documented, and for this reason the Government recommend that women who are pregnant or who are trying to become pregnant do not drink more than one to two units of alcohol per week.
	In addition, in 2005, the Department of Health commissioned an independent academic research review of the foetal effects of low to moderate perinatal alcohol exposure including the risk of miscarriage and is due to receive and consider the final peer reviewed report shortly.

Lord Bassam of Brighton: Yes. I refer the noble Lord to the Statement I made on 24 April 2006 (Official Report, cols. WS 3–6) setting out changes to the compensation schemes following a miscarriage of justice. The ex-gratia scheme has now been abolished and changes are proposed to the way in which compensation is assessed under the statutory scheme. Some of the proposals will require legislation.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
	Letter to Lord Morris of Manchester from the National Statistician, dated May 2006.
	As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions about disabled people in employment and their earnings. (HL5332, HL5334 and HL5331)
	Table 1 shows the employment levels and rates of disabled and non-disabled people of working age by gender and region.
	Table 2 shows employment levels for disabled and non-disabled people of working age by occupation.
	Table 3 shows the mean gross hourly earnings of disabled and non-disabled employees of working age.
	All three tables are covering the latest available period which is the three months ending February 2006.
	Estimates are taken from the Office for National Statistics' Labour Force Survey (LFS). As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
	
		Table 1: Disabled(1) and non-disabled people of working age(2) in employment
		
			 United Kingdom Thousands and percent 
			  Disabled 
			  Total Male   Female 
			 Three months ending February2006 (not seasonally adjusted) In Employment Employmentrate(3) (%) InEmployment Employmentrate(3) (%) InEmployment Employmentrate(3) (%) 
			 United Kingdom 3,505 50.0 1,853 51.6 1,652 48.4 
			 North-east 157 42.2 78 39.5 79 45.1 
			 North-west & Merseyside 382 43.8 202 42.9 181 44.7 
			 Yorkshire & Humberside 323 51.9 176 54.9 146 48.8 
			 East Midlands 282 57.5 150 59.0 132 55.9 
			 West Midlands 297 48.1 154 50.7 143 45.7 
			 Eastern 334 58.0 181 61.5 152 54.3 
			 London 372 45.5 195 47.8 176 43.2 
			 South-east 505 60.3 260 62.4 245 58.2 
			 South-west 309 55.7 168 57.7 141 53.5 
			 Wales 174 42.0 93 44.4 81 39.5 
			 Scotland 304 47.6 157 48.3 148 46.9 
			 Northern Ireland 67 35.1 40 40.2 27 29.6 
		
	
	Source: ONS—Labour Force Survey
	1 Includes those who have a long-term disability which substantially limits their day-to-day activities and those who have a long-term disability which affects the kind or amount of work they might do.
	2 Working age refers to men aged 16–64 and women aged 16–59.
	3 Refers to the percentage of working age people in employment as a proportion of all working age people in the relevant group.
	
		Table 1(Continued): Disabled(1) and non-disabled people of working age(2) in employment
		
			 United Kingdom Thousands and percent 
			  Disabled 
			  Total Male   Female 
			 Three months ending February2006 (not seasonally adjusted) InEmployment Employment rate(3) (%) InEmployment Employmentrate(3) (%) InEmployment Employmentrate(3) (%) 
			 United Kingdom 23,672 80.2 12,899 84.9 10,774 75.1 
			 North-east 916 79.5 488 84.1 428 74.9 
			 North-west & Merseyside 2,612 80.9 1,401 85.3 1,212 76.4 
			 Yorkshire & Humberside 1,951 80.3 1,064 84.7 888 75.6 
			 East Midlands 1,722 81.8 929 85.9 793 77.5 
			 West Midlands 2,042 79.1 1,139 84.3 903 73.5 
			 Eastern 2,245 81.3 1,225 86.7 1,019 75.6 
			 London 2,989 74.2 1,685 80.9 1,304 66.9 
			 South-east 3,405 82.2 1,860 87.2 1,545 76.9 
			 South-west 2,013 83.1 1,084 87.1 928 78.8 
			 Wales 1,069 79.9 574 83.1 495 76.5 
			 Scotland 2,038 82.1 1,085 85.5 952 78.4 
			 Northern Ireland 670 77.7 365 82.6 305 72.6 
		
	
	Source: ONS—Labour Force Survey
	1 Includes those who have a long-term disability which substantially limits their day-to-day activities and those who have a long-term disability which affects the kind or amount of work they might do.
	2 Working age refers to men aged 16–64 and women aged 16–59.
	3 Refers to the percentage of working age people in employment as a proportion of all working age people in the relevant group.
	
		Table 2: Disabled(1) and non-disabled people of working age(2) in employment by occupation(3)
		
			 United Kingdom Thousands 
			 Three months ending February 2006Not seasonally adjusted Disabled In employment Non-disabled In employment 
			  Total Male Female Total Male Female 
			 Total(4) 3,505 1,853 1,652 23,672 12,899 10,774 
			 Managers and Administrators 471 308 163 3,634 2,405 1,229 
			 Professional Occupations 375 206 169 3,120 1,808 1,312 
			 Associate Professional and Technical Occupations 454 212 242 3,471 1,764 1,708 
			 Clerical and Secretarial Occupations 444 100 344 2,806 611 2,194 
			 Craft and Related Occupations 398 365 33 2,654 2,460 194 
			 Personal and Protective Service Occupations 298 52 246 1,833 278 1,555 
			 Sales Occupations 279 80 199 1,825 585 1,240 
			 Plant and Machine Operatives 316 274 42 1,734 1,518 216 
			 Other Occupations 455 246 209 2,549 1,438 1,111 
		
	
	Source: ONS—Labour Force Survey
	1 Includes those who have a long-term disability which substantially limits their day-to-day activities and those who have a long term disability which affects the kind or amount of work they might do.
	2 Working age refers to men aged 16–64 and women aged 16–59.
	3 Based on the standard occupational classification (SOC) 2000.
	4 Total includes those who did not state their occupation.
	
		Table 3: Mean gross hourly earnings(1) of disabled(2) and -- non-disabled employees of working age(3)United Kingdom
		
			 Not seasonally adjusted Three months endingFebruary 2006 Total Disabled Non-disabled 
			 Total 11.09 10.25 11.22 
			 Male 12.38 11.07 12.57 
			 Female 9.75 9.47 9.79 
		
	
	Source: ONS—Labour Force Survey
	1 Respondents whose hourly pay is £100 or over are excluded from the sample.
	2 Includes those who have a long-term disability which substantially limits their day-to-day activities and those who have a long-term disability which affects the kind or amount of work they might do.
	3 Working age refers to men aged 16–64 and women aged 16–59.

Lord Davies of Oldham: Where decriminalised parking is not in force, parking offences are enforced by the police service. The level of fine for a criminal parking offence is set by Schedule 2 to the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 and the level of fixed penalty is set by order made under that Act. The most recent order is the Fixed Penalty (Amendment) Order 2003, S.I. 2003, No 1254.
	Where decriminalised parking is in force, parking contraventions are enforced by local authorities. Outside London, the levels of additional parking charges (including penalty charge notices) for parking contravention are set in accordance with procedures in the Road Traffic Act 1991 and the order under that Act putting decriminalised parking in place in the local authority. In particular they must be set in accordance with guidance from the Secretary of State. Inside London, the level of additional parking charges (including penalty charge notices) is set in accordance with procedures in the Road Traffic Act 1991. A local authority must set the level of such charges in conjunction with a joint committee and subject to the approval of the Mayor for London and the Secretary of State.
	Local authorities outside London must chose between one of three penalty charge notice (PCN) levels: £40, £50 and £60. London authorities must chose between PCN levels of £60, £80 and £100. There is a discount of 50 per cent. for PCNs paid within 14 days. An authority may use different PCN levels in different parts of their area but few do.

Baroness Amos: India
	DfID's largest aid programme is to India, where we provided £245 million in 2005–06. All DfID's support is aimed at reducing poverty, which as we know has many, inter-linked dimensions, including low levels of income, assets, literacy and well-being. DfID's largest programmes in India are in education and health which have an indirect but very significant impact on economic opportunities for the poor.
	India is making impressive progress in growing its economy and reducing income poverty, and DfID contributes to this in a number of ways. Nationally, working with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), DfID assists the Government of India to make their increasingly open trade regime deliver their potential for promoting sustainable growth and reducing poverty. In Orissa, one of the poorest states in India, DfID is working with the Government to improve the investment climate through measures such as simplifying regulations facing businesses. DfID supports several micro-finance programmes to promote access to credit and other financial services to poor people, both within India and in having better information about money transfer services for remittances from family and friends working abroad.
	DfID supports rural livelihoods programmes in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, which are designed to improve economic opportunities for poor people through increasing access to markets and diversifying livelihoods in the agricultural and non-farm sectors.
	DfID supports governments and municipal authorities in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh in efforts to improve urban management and the urban environment, particularly for poor people and slum-dwellers. Many aspects of these programmes will increase economic opportunities—e.g. by reducing the cost or time to fetch clean water, by improving roads to better link people, jobs and goods and services. There is also a local economic development component to these programmes, including business or skills training and grants for starting small businesses.
	DfID also assists the Governments of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh with power sector programmes which are designed to improve efficiency and financial sustainability of the power sector in these states. Better-run services should reduce power outages and so remove a major constraint on firms' productivity, increasing investment and jobs in a range of sectors.
	To increase educational opportunities, for the past two years DfID has been supporting the Indian Government's flagship Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) universal elementary education programme, together with the World Bank and the European Commission. DfID's commitment is £210 million over the five years 2003–04 to 2007–08. SSA is the central government's prime vehicle for delivering on the universal primary education MDG and the 2002 constitutional amendment that made elementary education a fundamental right. The aim is to ensure that by 2015 all children in India are receiving eight years of basic education of acceptable quality, regardless of sex, caste, creed, family income or location.
	SSA is a priority for the Indian Government, who have greatly increased their funding of the programme in the past two years, in part funded by an earmarked tax. Large numbers of teachers are being recruited and trained, teaching and learning materials are in mass production, new schools and classrooms are under construction and there has been a huge drive to get children into school. Remarkable progress is being made:
	enrolments for 2004–05 among the 6–14 years age group have reached 94 per cent (201 million children);
	the number of out-of-school children has fallen from 25 million in 2003 to 13.5 million in march 2005;
	drop out rates have fallen; and
	strong progress has been made towards gender and social equity, including for scheduled caste children and children with disabilities.
	The remarkable progress with SSA is helping to ensure that all girls and boys in India can have the opportunity to complete a full course of primary education, though further large-scale investments in the primary education system are needed to achieve that.
	DfID and other UK government departments are also supporting the Indian Government to access information, ideas and experience from the UK and elsewhere in diverse areas of education and skills development.
	Increasing economic and education opportunities is recognised and appreciated by our partners in India and is set to remain a key part of our support to India.
	Pakistan
	DfID Pakistan became a fully devolved operation in Islamabad only at the beginning of 2005. It has agreed a country assistance grant programme worth £236 million with the Government of Pakistan for the period 2005–06 to 2008–09. Poverty reduction in all its many facets is the central focus of the programme, which operates under three major pillars: (a) income growth (including access to microfinance), (b) accountability of the state to its citizens (good and better governance) and (c) service delivery (including education, health and water and sanitation).
	DfID recently released the first £20 million tranche of the £85 million poverty reduction budget support programme to the Government of Pakistan. Among the indicators for the first year is a requirement for increased social sector spending by the Government. This increased money in the Government of Pakistan's budget will have a national impact on improved education in Pakistan.
	In addition to this, 17 per cent of the recently approved devolved social services programme in Punjab (total value $220 million) will be spent in the education sector, with a significant emphasis on adult literacy, a major issue for Pakistan where over 40 per cent of the population is illiterate. The aim of the programme is to achieve progress on the millennium development goals related to poverty, gender, education, health, and water and sanitation, with the purpose being to strengthen devolved social services for more equitable, efficient and sustainable delivery of social services in Punjab.
	In direct education programming, we are providing £700,000 of funding to the National Education Assessment System, in collaboration with the World Bank. This programme is a government-led system of testing to establish quality of learning and the factors that influence that learning. Findings from the tests will help the Government of Pakistan better to address areas of concern in the education system, such as curriculum and teacher training, thereby improving the overall quality of the education system.
	DfID is actively supporting the Government of Pakistan's Poverty Reduction Strategy, which focuses on increasing incomes and employment opportunities for the poor through sustained economic growth. DfID poverty reduction budget support is aimed at helping the Government of Pakistan achieve their targets of accelerating economic growth while providing adequate social safety nets for the marginalised.
	On economic opportunities for the poor, DfID is providing £20 million for increasing access to micro-finance through two large NGOs, the Kashf Foundation and Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN). With DfID support, Kashf is targeting to increase its clients (mostly poor women) from 75,000 to 300,000 in five years. The RSPN programme provides micro-finance, social mobilisation and building small-scale infrastructure to improve livelihoods.
	DfID is also helping the Government of Pakistan to improve access to finance through analytical studies and information sharing on global best practices. The Government have asked us to support a household survey that would ascertain a baseline on access to financial services in Pakistan. As part of this programme, we recently submitted a report to the Government on the potential for increasing the level of remittances (mostly from the UK) to re-habilitate the earthquake affected household in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
	DfID is also helping to improve the enabling environment for investment and private sector development. In this connection, DfID is providing £12 million to support a tax administration reforms programme. The programme aims at improving the tax administration culture through automation, capacity building and reducing corruption. DfID is also supporting the development of a competition framework and investment climate assessment.
	In the Punjab province, DfID is helping the provincial government develop a vision for private sector development and creation of employment opportunities. The programme focuses on improved infrastructure, reduced barriers to business and improved communication networks. DfID is also considering a large programme to improve income growth opportunities in the poorer districts of Punjab and NWFP.

Lord Bassam of Brighton: Information on the number of first releases on life licence from prison establishments in England and Wales from 1995 to 2004, by time served under sentence, is given in the table below. Information on the population of life sentenced prisoners in prison establishments in England and Wales at 30 June 2004, including the number whose interval since date of initial reception on life sentence was less than five years, five to less than 10 years, 10 to less than 15 years, 15 to less than 20 years, 20 to less than 30 years and 30 years and over, is published in table 10.12 of the internet tables of Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2004. The internet tables for Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2004 are available at the following internet address: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/omcs.html.
	
		Number of first releases on life licence from prison establishments in England and Wales by time served under sentence
		
			 Time served under sentence 
			  Less than5 years 5 to less than 10 years 10 to less than 15 years 15 to less than 20 years 20 to less than 30 years 30 or more years Total 
			 Year released on licence  
			 1995 - 20 43 18 10 1 92 
			 1996 - 13 42 24 6 - 85 
			 1997 1 16 38 30 11 2 98 
			 1998 7 18 35 31 9 - 100 
			 1999 3 29 51 28 15 2 128 
			 2000 3 24 56 34 8 2 127 
			 2001 6 26 58 37 11 - 138 
			 2002 16 30 55 28 24 - 153 
			 2003 15 32 96 48 40 6 237 
			 2004 19 48 67 43 27 1 205 
		
	
	Source:
	Prison IT system. Further updates and amendments may be made to records in the future resulting in revised figures.